


All the Pages Unturned

by Cosmic_Biscuit



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Drama, Fluff, Gen, Post-Series, Psychic Abilities, mindscape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-02
Updated: 2012-09-02
Packaged: 2017-11-13 09:15:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/501880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cosmic_Biscuit/pseuds/Cosmic_Biscuit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Barnaby starts getting sick, Kotetsu and the other heroes discover that Maverick didn't give his project up nearly as easily as they thought he did, and a psychic journey into Barnaby's mind might be the only way to save his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All the Pages Unturned

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymously commissioned, and posted with permission of the recipient.

Bunny was sleeping a lot lately.  
  
At first, Kotetsu figured it was just stress and deprivation catching up with him. Even though they were both on the second string, they'd been getting called to handle a lot of cases more suited to the A-list heroes as of late. Plus Bunny had started going running with Pao-lin in the last couple of months. With all that, Kotetsu didn’t mind having to wait in the living room for his partner to wake up when he went over to Bunny's place, or looking over to see that he'd nodded off during a movie at his, because Bunny seriously needed the rest and his sleep seemed to be mostly nightmare-free for a change.  
  
When he started dozing off at strange times, then things got a little more confusing. Kotetsu would find him sleeping in the kitchen, slumped over the counter with a glass in hand and the faucet still running. Or they’d be in the middle of typing reports and he’d look over to see Bunny facedown at his desk, asleep in mid-sentence. Once, he’d even gone to sleep in the middle of an interview, and no one had been able to wake him until hours later.  
  
Bunny had also started having odd lapses of forgetting things. He would be talking about something and then just veer off into another subject or trail off altogether. He'd missed lunch twice in the last week alone, and it was clear he hadn't been eating at other times he needed to as well.  
  
Every time something happened, Bunny just insisted it was ordinary tiredness, and doctor visits hadn’t been able to tell them anything to the contrary. "You're worrying too much. I'll be fine in a few days or so," Bunny would always say whenever he brought up the subject.  
  
So Kotetsu tried to just sort of… play along and keep up where he could.  
  
Then came the incident in the middle of a training session. Only activation of his own power had kept Bunny from being crushed by the weight machine when the sudden imbalance of him going limp had caused the safeties to fail. Holding his partner tightly and trying to ignore the way his heart was pounding, he quickly avoided the stares of the other second-stringers and ducked into the locker room.  
  
When he’d finally stopped shaking from the adrenaline enough to look down, Bunny was perfectly serene in sleep, as if they’d stretched out in the oxygen chambers instead of nearly getting killed by their own equipment.  
  
Kotetsu bit his lip. There was no goddamn way this was natural.  
  
 _Now_ he was starting to get scared.  
  
He knew Agnes and Ben were busy with going over the day's feeds, so with a sleeping Bunny still half in his lap, he called Antonio.  
  
"Nathan mentioned something last week about headaches," his friend said once he'd explained what had just happened. "Really nasty ones, too."  
  
"Bunny didn't tell me about anything like that," Kotetsu said, a little more anxiously than before.  
  
"Well, the only time he saw Barnaby in bad shape was a few days after that sonic-powered screaming NEXT, and _all_ of you had problems from that."  
 _  
'Yeah, but not_ days _later,'_ Kotetsu thought to himself, shifting the younger man to a less awkward position. If the headaches were connected to these weird sleeping spells, there was no telling what was going on. As he struggled to think of what to do next, Bunny stirred in his arms, expression looking pained.  
  
Then he saw the blood.  
  
"Kotetsu? Hey!" Antonio's voice sounded far away, and Kotetsu looked down to see that he'd dropped the phone on the floor. He picked it up and put it back to his ear, swallowing nervously. _'Okay. Okay. Stay calm. This is just like any other emergency, go hero mode and don't panic,'_ he told himself.  
  
"I'm gonna need your help getting him to the hospital," he said as he reined his nerves back in, trying to get Bunny's head tilted the right way. He knew it was normally back for nosebleeds, but what if the person was asleep? He ended leaning his partner against him, head back against his shoulder. "He's still out cold, but he's started bleeding from the nose."  
  
"Shit. On my way up."  
  
Kotetsu put his phone up and Bunny moved again, coughing a little from the mess going down the back of his throat. "Bunny?"  
  
"Ngh... head hurts..." the blond slurred in a voice Kotetsu had never heard come out of him before. Then before he could ask anything about the headaches, Bunny's eyes closed again and he went back to being limp and unresponsive. _'Goddammit, Antonio, hurry up...'_  
  
"Hey, what's going on?" Kotetsu looked up to find Miss Violet hovering near the door, looking at Bunny with an expression of worry. "Is he sick?"  
  
"I don't know what's wrong yet, but we're getting help. Grab me some towels, would you, Sandra?"  
  
The bleeding had stopped by the time they got him laid out on the floor with rolled towels under his head and neck, but Bunny was looking unnaturally pale and his pulse felt sluggish under Kotetsu's fingers when he checked it. Antonio came in, followed by Nathan, and their faces grew even more tense when they saw Bunny's condition. "Antonio filled me in on the way," Nathan said when Kotetsu opened his mouth. "How long has the nosebleed been going?"  
  
"It stopped right before you got here, so maybe a little over five minutes? His heartbeat's really weak, too," Kotetsu said as he scooted aside to let Nathan check for himself.  
  
"I think we're going to have to let an ambulance handle this one, honey," Nathan said, shaking his head a little after he'd done a cursory examination. "Whatever's going on with him, we're not equipped to handle it if traffic becomes a problem."  
  
"I'll call," Miss Violet volunteered.  
  
"I'll go give Agnes a heads up," Antonio said. "Last thing we need is the EMTs getting blocked by security."  
  
Kotetsu nodded to both suggestions, watching numbly as Nathan continued examining Bunny with careful hands, removing his glasses to get them out of the way. They both started a little when Bunny suddenly shifted, mumbling something incomprehensible, then Nathan swore quietly and pulled a handkercheif out of his coat when the nosebleed started back up again.  
  
Green eyes fluttered open a little bit, glazed and unfocused. "Hey, Bunny," Kotetsu said a little loudly, trying to get him to wake up more, and his partner's head turned vaguely in his direction.  
  
"C- ... can't find it," Bunny mumbled in that same unnerving tone before, like he was drugged and afraid and about to throw up all at once.  
  
"You can't find what, honey?" Nathan asked, and despite the hand holding the cloth over his nose, Bunny shook his head a little, very slowly.  
  
"Don' want it," he said, then his eyes closed. Kotetsu and Nathan both tried shaking him a little and calling his name, but it did no good. He was out again.  
  
Any puzzling over the cryptic words was interrupted when paramedics burst into the locker room, and the two of them quickly got out of the way. Hanging back by the lockers, Kotetsu could only shove his hands into his pockets to hide them clenching in worry as a tube was put down his partner's throat to keep him from choking on his own blood and an oxygen mask was fitted over his nose and mouth. Bunny was strapped down to a board to keep his head from getting jostled, then lifted onto the gurney.  
  
"Do you want to go with him?" Nathan asked quietly near his ear, and Kotetsu started in surprise before nodding and quickly going to catch up to the EMTs.  
  
Bunny's hand was colder than usual, but he didn't let go of it until his partner was taken away for examination in the ER.

===

  
  
His call band had been mercifully silent all evening, but that left him little to do but pace the hospital hallways and wait for word of Bunny's condition. He'd briefly considered going to the cafeteria, but the butterflies in his stomach had quickly nixed that idea. One by one, the other heroes and Ben and Agnes had either come by or called to check in, but one by one, he had to tell them he didn't know anything yet.  
  
 _God_ , he hated waiting.  
  
At one point, a nurse came by with a giant pile of paperwork. Since Bunny had no family, or at least not any that could be contacted, and no one currently assigned power of attorney, they had to clear all the legal red tape to allow him information on his partner. For once, Kotetsu took the pen and sat down to start filling out forms and signing line after line without a peep of complaint.  
  
It was almost four in the morning and he'd been at the hospital going on twelve hours when a man in a white coat and scrubs approached him. "Mr. Kaburagi? Cole Theissen, neurology department."  
  
Kotetsu swallowed thickly, then accepted the handshake. "How is he?"  
  
"We're transferring him to the ICU now. If you'll come with me, please?"  
  
A cold feeling of dread came over him, but Kotetsu nodded and got up from his chair to follow the doctor. Once they'd reached intensive care, he nervously stayed near the door while his guide talked to the nurse at the station and collected some files. "Mr. Kaburagi, over here."  
  
Kotetsu approached, and the doctor laid out several scans. "These two are from the annual evaluations the lot of you underwent before his retirement. And these two are from the testing done when he arrived here last night. As you can see, his brain has swelled quite a bit."  
  
He couldn't find words to respond, so he just nodded again, and the doctor continued. "The more responsive he tries to be, the worse his condition gets, such as the nosebleeds you described occurring whenever he woke up. For this reason, we felt it be best that he be put in a medical coma to allow us to study the problem further."  
  
That feeling of dread went from being draped over him to a chunk of ice in his stomach. "A _coma_?"  
  
"A _temporary_ one. Just so we can get to the root of this without risking causing him any further brain damage."  
  
That really didn't make him feel any better. His mind just kept getting stuck on the fact that _Bunny_ was in a _coma_. Belatedly, he finally realized that Thiessen was asking him something, and blinked. "Eh?"  
  
"I said do you have any idea what might have brought this on? New medication, head injury on the job, something of that nature?"  
  
"Er, no. Bu- arnaby's never taken anything at work that I know of, so if he's on anything, he's been quiet about it. And he hasn't taken any hits to the head that I remember. He... um... He was Albert Maverick's primary victim in that case that came up last year, but he only started having the sleeping spells maybe two months ago."  
  
"Hm. We'll see if he has any prescriptions listed in his medical records. In the meantime, I suggest getting some rest. You're welcome to see him once visiting hours are open."  
  
"Sure," Kotetsu said with a very weak smile, and the doctor patted him on the shoulder before giving the files back to the nurse and leaving to get back to work. For a minute or so after that, Kotetsu just stood there, frozen, until the nurse asked with some concern if he was all right. With a not very convincing affirmative, he left the intensive care ward and went to go call Antonio to start the update chain.  
  
He went down to the parking garage before belatedly remembering that he didn't have a car, since he'd gone with the ambulance. To his surprise, though, a familiar red sportscar was waiting in the valet zone, and Nathan waved to him. "I figured you might need a lift."  
  
"Yeah." He slid into the passenger seat without hesitation or complaint, just in time to see the digital dash clock click over to five in the morning. "Sorry for calling everyone at such a shit hour."  
  
"It's fine. I don't think any of us were getting much sleep anyway."  
  
Nathan turned the radio down and they rode in mostly silence. As they were coming up on the exit to the silver stage, however, Kotetsu sat up a little straighter. "Hey. Take me to Bunny's place instead."  
  
"Why would you want to go there?"  
  
"I just... have a hunch."  
  
Nathan gave him a side glance, but they passed the exit without getting off. "All right, then, you'll have to give me directions."  
  
  
===

  
  
Once he'd let them both into Bunny's apartment, Kotetsu started searching.  
  
"What are we looking for?" Nathan asked.  
  
"Something that might tell us what's going on with Bunny," Kotetsu replied. In truth, he had no idea if he'd even know what was helpful if he found it, but checking around at least gave him something to do. Made him feel a little less helpless than just waiting. He suspected Nathan knew what he was doing, but the other hero mercifully didn't question it and began poking around as well.  
  
Kotetsu had never figured out why Bunny had chosen to continue living in this place. Sure, it was a little homier now, with a couch and a second chair and some vases for the flowers fans sent, but still...  
  
Bunny's laptop sat open on the kitchen counter, which struck him as strange. Had Bunny been working on something before going to the gym? Curious, Kotetsu tapped a key to wake it up, and made a soft hiss when the screen went live to reveal floods of news articles and files. He recognized some of it as things Bunny had shown him before, but there was a lot of new stuff too.  
  
"Find anything?" Nathan asked as he came in.  
  
"Just this. Looks like Bunny's still digging up dirt on Oroborous... Something about drug connections. What about you?"  
  
Nathan produced a small prescription bottle held in another handkerchief. It had no label, but there were still several small pills inside. "Found this rolled in a corner of his bedroom. Handsome must have tried to throw it away and missed."  
  
That wasn't like Bunny. Though Kotetsu had tried, none of his bad habits had rubbed off on his partner, and the blond was fastidious as ever. For him to have just chucked something and _not_ made sure it had actually ended up _in_ the garbage, he must have been in a pretty bad state. And to have been taking something that wasn't labeled in the first place?  
  
They searched the rest of the apartment thoroughly, but those were the only things of interest or out of place. His instincts kept telling him they were connected _somehow,_ but he couldn't come up with the link. "We're missing something important here," he muttered, scratching the back of his neck in frustration.  
  
"Let's start out with getting these tested," Nathan suggested, indicating the pill bottle. "Maybe finding out what he was taking will give us a better clue."  
  
  
===

  
  
Bunny's condition hadn't changed for either better or worse in the three days it took for the results to come back on the pills. The press had gotten wind of his hospital stay, however, and the rumor mill had been running at full speed. He'd just finished with a call from Kaede to tell her that all the stories she'd been hearing at school were wrong when Ben called and told him to get to Apollon. The tone of his voice made that cold feeling of dread come back, and when he walked into the room and saw the grim expressions on his bosses' faces, it only got worse. Taking off his hat so his hands would have something to clench onto, Kotetsu took a seat with the other heroes.  
  
"Let's cut right to the center of this," Agnes said. "What do you all know about the drug Synaptein?"  
  
All of the heroes glanced at each other in confusion, then Nathan frowned. "Wasn't that scrapped before it ever reached the market?"  
  
"Yes and no. In its original lab tests, Synaptein was designed to work as a heavy-grade migraine inhibitor by restricting flow of blood and chemicals to certain areas of the brain," Ben explained. "However, it proved to have too many dangerous side effects in the long-term. It was banned from civilian markets, but is still under testing by the military as a potential paralysis sedative."  
  
"What sort of side effects did long-term use have?" Kotetsu asked, already fearing the answer.  
  
"Blackouts and worse headaches, for starters, even hemmoraging of the brain. Eighty per cent of the lab mice in the original trials died prematurely."  
  
The room was awkwardly quiet. None of them asked how Bunny had gotten hold of the drug. None of them had to. There was only one person on the planet whom Bunny would have accepted the prescription from, who would have even considered using such a dangerous pill for his own reasons and had the connections to get it. But why would he?  
  
Kotetsu twisted his hat in his hands. He knew there was something there, but it kept getting away from him. The pills, the research, the memory problems, Maverick...  
  
The memory of Maverick wiping out his own own mind flashed into his head, and suddenly, it all clicked together. "Hey." Everyone turned to look at him. "Is it possible that Maverick maybe... set this up somehow? I mean, he had access to Bunny's brain and the drugs for a really long time, and we know he would have done just about anything to protect the organization."  
  
"Like a fail-safe?" Pao-lin asked.  
  
Nathan tapped manicured nails against his thigh in thought. "We have no idea what the extent of Maverick's power was, so it's not entirely out of left-field that he would have that ability."  
  
"Maverick was willing to let Barnaby die with the rest of us to keep his secrets, too," Antonio pointed out. "Him having a backup plan in case he was unable to personally keep Barnaby in check is also possible."  
  
"What could have set it off, though?" Karina asked. "Barnaby only started getting sick a little while ago, but Maverick's been dead for over a year."  
  
"Maybe it was more than one thing? Like, we know Bunny found out what the drug was and threw it away. Then he started doing more research into where it came from, and just from what I saw, he had to have been digging for weeks at least. If he'd just done one the first two, he still could have gotten it wiped from his memory within a couple of days, but the combo of the three meant that Maverick couldn't do anything to stop him anymore-"  
  
"And then his brain basically started eating itself once the switch was flipped," Pao-lin finished.  
  
Kotetsu winced. "I was trying not to think of it like that, but yeah."  
  
"Which still leaves the question of whether or not anything can be done about this," Agnes said. "As far as those we've been able to contact know, no one's found a counteracting agent to reverse the effects of Synaptein once they reach this stage. And that's not even getting into the memory loss."  
  
"Barnaby might know, if he's found out about the drugs before and just got the memory buried. But we're still up a creek with that one with him being comatose and all."  
  
"Maybe not."  
  
They all looked in Ivan's direction. "You have a way to ask him?" Agnes asked.  
  
"No. But I know who can find us someone that can."  
  
  
===

  
  
Kotetsu looked at the pamphlet Ivan had gotten out of his locker. "The Daylight Institute? Isn't that a halfway house?"  
  
"Sort of," Ivan said, fiddling with the hem of his jacket. "They do help NEXTs who've been in prison get reintegrated back into society. Edward's going there when he gets out. But it's also a kind of specialized school for NEXTs who've suffered because of their powers. Like, their powers scare them or people abused them because of them being NEXTs. A lot of psychic-type NEXTs end up there instead of the Hero Academy."  
  
"And one of them might be able to help us solve the mystery of Handsome," Nathan said, and Ivan nodded. "It's a good idea, if any of them are willing. I better check in with the director first." He pulled out his cell to call the Institute.  
  
While Nathan was doing that, Kotetsu moved a little ways out of the way so he could see about getting any updates on Bunny's condition. The hospital still had nothing new to report. Bunny was currently being kept stable, and as long as he remained comatose, no further physical damage was occuring. Yet. Raking his hair out of his eyes and trying to bite back his frustration, Kotetsu closed his phone and turned to the others. "Any luck?"  
  
"The director's agreed to meet with us tomorrow morning. They need the time to determine which NEXTs would have the best power set for the job, and ask around among their charges to see if anyone who qualifies will volunteer."  
  
Which meant that, once again, all there was to do was wait.

 

===

 

 

Kotetsu attacked his backlog of paperwork with gusto that made the secretary a little suspicious, but she didn't say anything to him about it. As long as he was staring at lines and forms and stupid fine print he sometimes didn't understand, he wasn't glancing at the empty chair beside him and worrying.  
  
A nasty little part of him even hoped there would be an emergency call, just so he could focus on something. He instantly felt guilty for the thought, though, and dug into the files even deeper.  When he had nothing left to sign, though, he couldn't help looking at the stack on Bunny's desk. _'He'll be pissed to come back to so much extra work,'_ Kotetsu thought, and it amused him for a brief moment before he remembered what Ben had said about Bunny's symptoms. That he might not ever be coming back.  
  
Shaking off the morose thought, Kotetsu got up to clock out and go home.  
  
As he closed the door to his apartment behind him, he glanced at the kitchen, then  headed straight for his bedroom, in no mood for food.  
  
He ended up being in no mood for sleep either.  
  
  
===

  
  
"Your request posed a bit of a challenge." The Institute director, a pale, elderly man with slicked back salt and pepper hair and a bushy white mustache, led them through the hallways of the school. "You see, most NEXTs with psychic abilites are what we call 'skimmers'. They can only touch what comes to them, rather than going searching for anything."  
  
"Like Jake Martinez. He could only predict our moves as long as we were actually thinking about them."  
  
"Precisely. And skimming won't do any good with your colleague's current condition. We do have several current attendees who can do much more than that; however, they are more likely to be psychologically damaged by their powers, and tend to be very reclusive as a result. But one did agree to at least talk to you."  
  
Kotetsu peered into the window they stopped at. A dark-skinned girl about Pao-lin's age sat doodling with crayons at a table, long black hair mostly hiding her face. An attendant hovered nearby, keeping an eye on things.  
  
"This is Keaka Rhyne, one of our boarding residents," the director explained. "Her family is from Hawaii, and she was sent here to live with an aunt just a few weeks after her power manifested. Her aunt comes by every week with a care package from the family."  
  
"What's her ability?" Nathan asked.  
  
"Memoryscapes. Including Keaka, we currently have three students capable of walking around in your mind as if it were a tangible room like the hall we're in. It's not a common psychic talent, and by  our records, it's a dangerous power to have."  
  
"Why? Does it have a detrimental effect to the people they use it on?"  
  
"Oh, no, nothing like that. It's dangerous because they tend to get overwhelmed and become lost. We've had a few students brought to us as mindless shells before because they were never able to make it back to their own bodies without quite a bit of assistance."  
  
Kotetsu couldn't help a shiver at the thought, still watching the kid draw. "But the ones you're taking about now, they don't have to worry about that, right?"  
  
"Correct. Keaka and our other two have become quite adept at getting in and out of even fractured minds, and have even been able to take others with them and bring them back safely. That was why the three of them were the ones we approached with your problem. However, Alex and Joel are both younger and more nervous around people and refused."  
  
"Understandable, and fine," Nathan said. "We're not looking to do this by any means of force."  
  
"Does she have any limits?" Ivan asked quietly.  
  
"Two hours in real-world time is the absolute maximum that a continuous session can take. After the time limit, all will be returned to their physical bodies, and she must have at least twenty-four hours to rest before she can begin another session. If she's willing to assist you, we will be sending a nurse along with her to monitor her vitals and make sure she's kept  hydrated."  
  
Kotetsu watched her as she used up the last of a red crayon and scowled at the tiny nub. "Is it all right to talk to her?"  
  
"Of course," the old man said, gesturing to the door. There was a little rolling cart with arts and crafts supplies just inside the room and Kotetsu rifled through it, picking the box of crayons that looked the newest and most complete before approaching the table to sit down. The doodles turned out to be elaborate and very well done drawings of birds, with an incomplete red and green one being the source of the girl's irritation.  
  
"Here you go," Kotetsu said, offering one of the reds. The girl glanced at him through the veil of her hair, but didn't take it. The silence stretched out until he felt kind of stupid still holding out the crayon, then she finally spoke.  
  
"Not that one." She pointed to another of the reds. "That one."  
  
Kotetsu obligingly switched, and this time, she accepted. "I have a little girl who's a bit younger than you and likes to draw, too," he said when she'd finished coloring in the splash of red feathers at the bird's throat. "You're very good."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
He wasn't quite sure how to bring up the subject of their request for aid, then decided it would be best to just bite the bullet. "Do you know why I'm here?"  
  
"Mr. Jericho says you need my help," she replied, starting on a new bird. Kotetsu set the box of crayons he'd picked up within easy reach.  
  
"That's right. Did he tell you why?"  
  
"Only a little bit. That there's a hero stuck inside his own head."  
  
"Well... it's something like that. See, Bunny had someone who was supposed to be his caretaker. Only that someone turned out to be a really terrible person and a really powerful NEXT who did things to his mind. And that person's gone now, but he left things behind."  
  
"Like traps."  
  
"Exactly like traps. And the traps have started being set off, which is making him really sick. So we need to be able to go inside Bunny's mind and break the traps and find out how to fix him before they mess him up for good, and Mr. Jericho-" he was assuming that was the director's name... he probably should have paid more attention during the initial introduction, "-says that you're one of the few who can help us do that."  
  
She pursed her lips as she drew, either thinking over the problem or concentrating on her bird. Kotetsu did his best not to fidget as he waited for an answer.  
  
"I'll do it," she said. "But on one condition."  
  
"Name it."  
  
"When your friend is better, I want to go to the zoo to see real birds like these. I haven't gotten to see anything except pigeons and parking lot finches since I moved here."  
  
He almost laughed in relief at the simple demand. Barely managing to restrain himself, he offered a hand to shake instead. "Done."  
  
  
===

  
  
Nathan  had volunteered to help Ben and Agnes coordinate between the Institute and the hospital, which left Kotetsu with some time to kill. Deciding he was past due for checking up on Barnaby in person, he steeled his nerve and took the elevator up to the ICU.  
  
The sight of his partner hooked up to all those beeping machines and covered in tubes made him almost turn around and flee, his mind briefly substituting another body in Barnaby's place. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to swallow the memory and took a seat in one of the chairs by the bed.  
  
"Bet the first thing you'll do when you wake up is ask for a stylist," he joked weakly, reaching out to brush a hand over curls that had been cropped shorter to keep them out of the way of the tubes and monitors. "You look less like a bunny without the fluff. You should go without makeup more often, though. You still look pretty good except for those circles under your eyes."  
  
He could feel his throat beginning to close up, and blinked back sudden tears. "This is gonna work, okay? We're gonna get you back. Hell, I'll even put up with you calling me old man again as long as you come back."  
  
There was no response except for the continuous beep and hiss of the machines, of course, and Kotetsu sighed, letting his hand fall to rest on Bunny's. He just sat like that for a few minutes, trying not to let his thoughts wander to dark places. The click of the door made him look up, and he blinked in surprise when Pao-lin came in with a vase of flowers. "Aren't you supposed to be in class right now?"  
  
"Natasha gave me the day off from my tutors," she said, setting the vase on the bedstand before settling into the chair beside his. "Couldn't concentrate."  
  
"Yeah, know the feeling." He tilted his head back against the chair, and they sat in silence for a few minutes, neither sure what to say. "How's your training been going?"  
  
"Oh, uh, good," Pao-lin said. "The last time we went out before... this... Barnaby said my speed was definitely improving. That I was gonna be faster than him before anyone realized it." She looked down at her hands. "I dunno if he meant it, or he was just saying it because he already knew he was getting sick."  
  
"Nah, he meant it. You know Bunny wouldn't give any of us compliments off-camera he didn't think we'd earned."  
  
That got a little bit of a smile out of her. "That's true," she said, before the smile turned into an apprehensive frown. "You don't mind, do you? That we were going out on training runs?"  
  
"I don't see why I should. I keep nagging him that he needs more friends. He mostly just rolls his eyes at me whenever I start on it now."  
  
Pao-lin made a tiny snort, then looked at Bunny for a long minute. "Karina told me about the plan. If the girl who's gonna be the conduit can shift more than one person, I'm going with you."  
  
Kotetsu made a startled noise at the sudden turn in conversation. "Eh- wait a minute- That wasn't what-"  
  
"You don't know what kind of things the old man might have left lurking in Barnaby's head. Backup would be a good idea. And besides," she added with a slightly pointed grin as she looked up at him. "Heroes protect the injured and friends protect each other, and you two _are_ my friends now, right?"  
  
Kotetsu stared at her, openmouthed, before giving an embarrassed little laugh and scrubbing a hand over his face. "Well played, squirt," he admitted. "All right. Backup it is."  
  
"Good." She got to her feet. "See you tomorrow, then."  
  
"Right," he said. When the door had closed behind her, he gave Bunny's hand a light squeeze. "Hear that, partner? Tiger and Dragon are on the case."  
  
  
===

  
  
When he came back to the hospital the next morning, Kotetsu found himself directed to one of the lesser-used surgery halls instead of the ICU. Bunny was already there, several mobile machines having been brought in to keep him stable, and two nurses keeping an eye on him, and two beds with vital-monitoring stations had been set up on either side of him.  
  
Someone had dragged in one of the heavy leather recliners that had been in the central office. Keaka was huddled in it with a third nurse checking her blood pressure. Kotetsu veered off in her direction first, crouching down in front of the chair. "Hey. You okay?"  
  
"I'm fine. I can't go with you to find the traps, though."  
  
"Eh?"  
  
"Two people is my limit."  
  
"So it'll just be me and Pao-lin?"  
  
"Yeah. But it'll be okay. You'll come right back; I can at least make sure of that."  
  
He gave her hair a light ruffle. "I trust you will," he said with a smile that was only a little bit nervous, and went to go see one of the other nurses to get ready. Pao-lin arrived a minute later with a rather apprehensive Natasha at her heels and also went to get prepped, and one by one, the other heroes trickled in to help watch over the proceedings to make sure nothing went wrong.  
  
"Do we have to do anything special?" Pao-lin asked once they were hooked up and stretched out on the beds beside Bunny.  
  
"Nope. But try to relax, it makes the construction easier."  
  
Easier said than done, really. But Kotetsu closed his eyes and took deep breaths to try and calm his nerves.  
  
He felt a sudden cold gust of air, and when he opened his eyes with a gasp, he was lying on a stone floor. Sitting up, he found himself surrounded by cases of books. A library? "That kind of figures," he murmured to himself. He turned his head to find Pao-lin getting up, but before he could ask if she was all right, the shelves suddenly moved, and he was spun around to the other side of the one he'd been closest to. Another case turned to try and close him in, but he found he could at least still access his powers in this place, and jumped up to the top to escape.  
  
The sight that met him made his breath catch in his chest. The library was an ever-moving maze, book cases shifting at random. In the center sat a heavy stone dome ringed with lamp posts that held glowing stained glass balls, and a huge stained glass skylight dome above it. "Holy shit."  
  
There was a soft thump as Pao-lin landed on the top of a nearby shelf. "This... This might take more than one trip," she said weakly when she saw the same thing he had, and he barely managed a nod in reply. God, where did they even _start_?  
  
Well, standing around being intimidated wasn't going to get them to their goal any faster, he finally decided, and Pao-lin followed him when he jumped down. As soon as his feet touched stone, his powers flickered back off.  
  
"Did your time drop again?" she asked when he looked at himself, puzzled.  
  
"No... I feel fine. Better than fine, in fact." He could even still feel the Hundred Power lurking in him at the ready. Testing, he reached for it again, and it came to him as if he hadn't used it at all previously. Then it switched off with a thought. "Ooh. This is useful. Not sure how I'm doing it, though."  
  
Pao-lin checked to make sure her lightning power was still in working order. "Maybe it's because this is Barnaby's brain. NEXT powers aren't restricted or something because he is one."  
  
"Maybe. Whatever it is, I'm not complaining." He peered at a shelf, selecting a book at random. When he flipped it open, the pages were full of nothing but squiggles that vaguely resembled words. "Okay, now I'm complaining. How are we supposed to find the right memory when we can't even _read_ them?"  
  
"This one seems to be fine," Pao-lin said, and Kotetsu looked over to see that the book she'd opened was both coherent, and had a little glowing window in it that his didn't. When they peered through it, they saw a much younger and brown-haired Samantha Taylor pick up a Bunny who was barely toddler aged. He waved through a hallway window to a pair working in a robotics laboratory. The two looked up to smile and wave back, and Kotetsu recognized them as Bunny's parents.  
  
Hm.  
  
He put the book back and took several more. Most were illegible squiggles like the first he'd found, but a few had the little windows like Pao-lin's. As they scanned through, he remembered something his mother had told him about dreams when he'd first had to start fighting psychic NEXTs. "I think the ones we can't read are his fake memories."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Supposedly, you can't read in dreams because the world you're in isn't real."  
  
"So if the memories aren't real, neither are the books. That'll help us narrow things down at least a little bit. We've still got a lot of ground to cover, though."  
  
"Right. Keaka said we'd both get pulled out at the time limit anyway, so it might be best to split up." He dug into his pockets and found the things he'd had on him in the real world had carried over. "Here," he said, holding out a thick pen to Pao-lin and keeping a small pocket knife for himself. "We can mark the ends of the shelves we've already searched this way."  
  
"Got it," she said, and had barely managed to grab the pen from his hand before another shelf moving separated them again.  
 _  
'No time to get nervous,'_ Kotetsu thought, then reactivated his power to begin rifling through books. The windows proved more helpful than the actual words, allowing him to see glimpses into the memories themselves. It felt kind of invasive to be doing it that way, but he reasoned that it was for a good cause.  
  
He'd gone through six full cases, and had crossed the first of Pao-lin's signatures, when he suddenly got the feeling that he was being watched. Kotetsu looked over his shoulder, his enhanced vision seeing nothing in the shadows, then reached for the next book. As soon as he flipped it open to see it was a proper memory, one that had a younger Bunny and Maverick, however, there was a snarl from nearby. A huge black doberman-shaped shadow leaped at him, ripping the book out of his hands. _"Hey!"_  
  
The shadow dog took off with the book and Kotetsu gave chase. As he got close, he noticed that the dog had a silver butterfly design etched into its back that matched its glowing eyes. He swore a little and put on some extra speed to tackle the creature. As soon as they hit the floor, it exploded into smoke and a shower of silver sparks, leaving him coughing. Recovering his breath, he opened the book, only to find the window had been destroyed by the dog's crushing teeth. " _Dammit._ Pao-lin, can you hear me?" he called out.  
  
"Yeah!" her voice called back from somewhere off to his right.  
  
"There are some kind of dogs lurking around in here! Don't let them get near Bunny's memories, they're the figment of the traps Maverick left!"  
  
"Noted!"  
  
He could see the reflection from the burst of lightning that followed her acknowledgment. Heaving himself to his feet, he resumed his own search, keeping a wary eye out for the next attack.  Three shelves later, he heard more snarling in the darkness, but nothing lunged at him. Wary, he decided this time to follow the noise and see if he could find out where the dogs were coming from.  
  
Instead, he found Bunny.  
  
Or at least a figment of Bunny. Teenage and skinny, the blond was struggling to fight his way out of a knot of the attacking shadow dogs, his clothes being shredded and repairing themselves by turns. Protective instinct kicked in and Kotetsu left his hiding spot, hitting the closest shadow dog hard enough to make it burst like the first one had.  
  
The others backed off, growling, and melted back into the darkness. Bunny came out from his defensive huddle and started to stand-  
  
-and then everything around them washed to grey.  
  
  
===

  
  
When Kotetsu opened his eyes again, he was staring up into surgical lights, and his head was pounding. He put a hand over his eyes until the pain subsided, then slowly sat up with the assistance of one of the nurses. Karina handed him a glass of water, and he glanced over to see Pao-lin was similarly being looked after by Natasha. "How did it go?" Antonio asked from close by.  
  
"There's so much to go through," Kotetsu said. "He has a lot more false memories than we'd expected. And we ran across the traps, but not the source of them."  
  
"Then you'll have to go back, right?"  
  
Karina moved out of the way to let the nurses get to Bunny, and Kotetsu could see Nathan and the third nurse supporting Keaka. Her long hair was plastered to her skin with sweat, and though she didn't seem to be in any pain, she looked drained. "Yes, we will," he said, feeling guilty. "I'm sorry."  
  
"Don't be. You'll just owe me ice cream now, too."  
  
"Twenty-four hour recovery period beginning now, time eleven forty-two," the nurse said, handing her water before beginning to disconnect the monitors.  
  
More orderlies and nurses bustled in to begin looking after Bunny and get him prepped for transfer back to his room. Kotetsu watched, feeling somewhere between numb and hopeful. They hadn't finished their job yet, but finding some form of Bunny in the library meant that maybe they'd at least have a guide next time.  
  
As Antonio helped him off the bed, he looked over in Keaka's direction. "Should we really send her all the way back to the Institute in this state? Especially when she's just going to have to come back in the morning?"  
  
"I'll have to call for permission and arrangements with Mr. Jericho," the nurse said. "But a close location would be best if this is going to be an ongoing case."  
  
"I have a loft just a few blocks from here," Nathan offered. "It's for my sister when she stays, but it's empty currently."  
  
"That will do." The nurse pulled out his cell phone to call the Institute.  
  
Kotetsu went to sit by the girl. "Is that okay with you?" he asked, and she gave a tired nod. Pao-lin sank down on her other side, and the lot of them looked on as Bunny was carefully taken away by the orderlies.  
  
"Wild Tiger, Dragon Kid, both of you are off active duty for the rest of the day," Agnes said decisively. "We'll still have enough people to cover any emergency calls, so you take the time to be ready for tomorrow."  
  
"Yes, Ma'am," Kotetsu and Pao-lin both said, neither having the energy to argue.  
  
  
===

  
  
He ended up staying long enough to see everyone off. Then, as he was about to head to his own car, Kotetsu changed his mind and went to the elevators that led to the ICU instead. Bunny had already been safely installed back in his spot, and he reclaimed the chair by the bed. "Hope the dogs aren't already after you again," he murmured, then eventually dozed off holding his partner's hand.  
  
  
===

  
  
"Where the hell did you come from?"  
  
There was no disorienting rush the second time they were sent into the memoryscape. But when Kotetsu and Pao-lin arrived, they were met by a still-teenage and now defensively hostile Bunny. Kotetsu held up his hands to show he was unarmed, though he didn't know how much good that would do.  
  
"We're here to help. Your body is currently in a hospital in critical condition because of a drug Maverick gave you as a medication."  
  
The tension in Bunny's body didn't change a bit, but his expression closed up into a different kind of anger as he looked away. "I knew it. I _knew_ that shit was poison."  
  
Kotetsu and Pao-lin looked at each other in surprise.  "Then why-?" Pao-lin asked.  
  
Bunny eyed them both warily, then finally eased up a little. "I can't... I can't really explain it. I know what I'm looking for and when it was from," he said, indicating his obviously different age. "But I don't know specifically what it is."  
  
Kotetsu scratched at his beard in thought. "That's what all the stuff on your laptop was. You thought maybe you'd found the answer in your Oroborous research before and he'd just made you forget about it."  
  
"I guess. It's hard to think in here, especially when those dogs keep coming after me at every turn."  
  
"Well, this might make some things easier. Since you actually have an idea where to search, we can focus on keeping the shadow dogs off your case and away from your memories," Pao-lin suggested.  
  
"Good plan," Kotetsu agreed. "Lead on, Bunny."  
  
The kid gave him a slightly confused and annoyed look, which made him wonder just how much this version of his partner could actually remember of them. But important things first. Bunny did some searching around to figure out which direction they needed to go after all the bookcase shuffling, and they were off.  
  
  
===

  
  
The going was proving more difficult than they'd anticipated. Bunny's claim that the dogs were targeting him just as much as they were the real memories had actually been an understatement. Packs of growling, snapping shadows lurked in every corner and corridor, just waiting for their chance to get at the blond, and some of them were much bigger and nastier than the ones they'd faced the first time they'd come to the library. Getting rid of them without accidentally damaging the books themselves was a challenge.  
  
To make matters worse, it seemed that while Bunny's brain allowed the two of them to fight unrestricted, he wasn't afforded the same ability. Not once had he activated his Hundred Power during the fighting, and it seemed to Kotetsu that he wasn't even aware he should have had it. More of Maverick's trickery?  
  
He didn't get the chance to wonder about it very long before another shadow leaped out of the darkness, open jaws and sharp teeth aimed directly for Bunny's throat. A shot of lightning eliminated it before it could bite down, and they plowed on.  
  
The constant attacks were clearly taking their toll on Bunny. While the rips in his clothing and bites from the dogs that got too close faded almost immediately, he was looking weaker and weaker with each attack. Kotetsu was sure he could actually see _through_ the kid a little, and worried about what this might be doing to the physical Bunny left out in the real world.  
  
"There," Bunny suddenly rasped, and they looked up at the shelf he was pointing to with an unsteady hand. It didn't look any different from the others, but Bunny's conviction that it was the right one wouldn't falter.  
  
"Pao-lin, watch our backs," Kotetsu said, then picked Bunny up and activated his powers. They landed on the top shelf, and he leaned over the edge. "Okay, which one is it?"  
  
"I don't know."  
  
He was about to incredulously ask how Bunny couldn't _know_ , then he looked at his partner. The blond looked _exhausted_ , and now Kotetsu was _sure_ he could see right through the kid. Either because of Maverick or as part of the coma, whatever searching ability Bunny had in his own mind was fading fast. Biting his lip, he began rifling through the books in the top shelf himself.  
  
There were memories of a small Bunny yelling at Maverick before collapsing, of school rooms and streets...  
  
On the fifteenth book, he peered through the little window to find the same Bunny that was next to him talking to a middle-aged man in a white lab coat. An unlabeled orange prescription bottle was in Bunny's hand, and they were studying something on a printout.  
  
This had to be it.  
  
 _"Got it!"_ he crowed, only to look beside him and find that Bunny had disappeared entirely. Fighting back a sudden cold feeling, he jumped down to Pao-lin. "Now how do we get the information to them?"  
  
"Maybe it'll go with us when we get pulled back. You remember enough of what was happening in it, right?"  
  
"I think so."  They could still hear snarling, but rather than being focused on them, it seemed to be going in different directions now. "What is-"  
  
"C'mon."  
  
They followed the noises, and found that with no Bunny to attack, the dogs were now just going after the books. "Shit!" Kotetsu hissed. "We gotta find out where these things are coming from before they turn Bunny into a vegetable."  
  
"Maybe the way the cases are moving has something to do with it?"  
  
"Dunno. Let's go high again and see if we can get a better look from where we are now."  
  
From the top of the case, they could see that they were actually fairly close to the central domes. But when all the shifting started over again, suddenly the previously 'random' pattern made sense. "Whatever Maverick did to screw this place up, he doesn't want us getting near the center."  
  
"The dogs have to be coming out of that, then. We just can't see them doing it because of the lamp posts."  
  
"Right, so let's-"  
  
He didn't get the chance to finish the sentence before everything washed to grey again.  
  
  
===

  
  
Waking up in the surgery hall was easier the second time, too. At least for them. As soon as Kotetsu sat up, he could see Keaka was hunched over with her head on her knees and Nathan holding her hair out of her face. "What happened? Is she okay?"  
  
"As soon as the time limit was up, she suddenly went on this verbal spew of information," Karina said, handing him a towel to dry off the sweat. "Luckily Agnes had a recorder on her to get it."  
  
Well, that explained how they were going to get Bunny's memory of the lab coat out. He was still worried, though. "I think we found how to help with the drug's effects, but we weren't able to break the source of the mind traps before we got pulled back. I don't want to ask about going in a third time if it's gonna hurt her, though."  
  
"Not hurt," came the barely audible mumble. "Nnnn _gonna hurl_..."  
  
Keith quickly grabbed a wastebasket and Nathan and the nurse helped Keaka hunch over to puke what breakfast she'd eaten. "Round three'll cost you new drawing stuff," she said when she could sit up again, and despite himself, Kotetsu couldn't help a small chuckle at her reaction.  
  
"I think I'll cover that one," Nathan said, giving her damp hair a ruffle as the nurse helped her rinse her mouth out.  
  
"Third session confirmed, then?" the nurse asked, looking at them for an answer. When all nodded, he checked his watch. "Then twenty-four hour recovery period starts now. Time two seventeen."  
  
  
===

  
  
After checking in to make sure Bunny's condition hadn't deteriorated any further as a result of what had happened in the library, Kotetsu decided to go see how their medium-of-sorts was doing. True to his word, Nathan had had an entire mess of high-quality crayons, colored pencils, markers, and drawing pads delivered to the loft, as well as some nature documentaries, and Keaka was curled up under a blanket as she drew. The nurse was there, keeping a watchful eye on her condition as always, and Nathan was busily working at his laptop on one of the couches.  
  
'How goes?" Kotetsu asked, leaning over his friend's shoulder.  
  
"Ben was able to run down a name for our mystery lab coat. Alexei Tereschenko, one of the scientists on the original team that declared Synaptein unsafe for market. He has no recollection of ever meeting Handsome, but no prizes for guessing why that might be."  
  
"Yeah. Is he going to help us, though?"  
  
"He's agreed to look at his old research to see if a counteragent might be devised. If we're lucky, Maverick didn't manage to wipe out all traces of Handsome's collaboration with him."  
  
Kotetsu crossed his fingers, then sank down onto the couch. He'd just gotten himself comfortable when his phone beeped an incoming call. He half considered not answering, until he saw it was from Kaede. "Hey, kiddo. What's up?"  
  
"Are you near a TV?"  
  
"Yeah." He frowned a little. "Why?"  
  
"You gotta turn to AN. They're spouting a whole bunch of crap about Barnaby!"  
  
Keaka obligingly fished the remote out of the pile of drawing materials and switched off her documentary on ocean life. "What channel is it?"  
  
"Thirty-seven," Nathan replied. When the channel changed, they were treated to the unpleasant view of Cat Rivers, one of the heroes' most-disliked gossip rakers. "Ugh, I don't _even_ want to hear it," Nathan said, nose wrinkling in distaste. "Whatever she's on about, let Apollon handle her."  
  
"Ditto," Kotetsu muttered. Part of him wanted to know what kind of outlandish lies the woman was peddling _this_ time, just so he'd know what needed to be exposed as bullshit, but the rest of him didn't want to deal with it at _all_. He got to his feet and headed to the kitchen to get something to drink, taking his phone with him. "Kaede, anyone who listens to her doesn't have a brain, you know that."  
  
"Yeah, but it's still not fair," she said. Then, much more quietly, "Does... Does Barnaby being sick have to do with you-know-who? I heard that one, too."  
  
They were in a safe place to talk, there was no way Nathan wouldn't have made sure of that, so Kotetsu nodded. "Yeah, it does. We're still working on getting him better, though. It's just taking awhile because we don't want to overwork the person who's using her NEXT power to help us."  
  
"Oh! I could help then-"  
  
"No. Shutting that idea down right now," Kotetsu said firmly.  
  
"But _Dad_ -"  
  
"It's not that I don't think you could help," he continued. "It's just that this is a very, _very_ dangerous power we're dealing with. Remember how you got so sick a few days after using Maverick's memory power? This is a whole lot worse."  
  
"Okay," she muttered, clearly disappointed, and Kotetsu set down the bottle of juice he'd gotten out of the fridge.  
  
"Hey, you know what you _could_ do, though? The girl who's doing this for us doesn't get to meet a whole lot of people just for _fun_ stuff. I bet having someone to talk drawing with her for awhile while she rests would cheer her up."  
  
She considered for a minute, then dug her sketchbook out of a desk drawer. "I can do that."  
  
"Great! Thanks, kiddo." Picking the juice back up, he went back to the living room, where the ocean documentary was back on. "Hey, Keaka? Remember when I told you I had a little girl who liked to draw? She'd like to say hello."  
  
After getting a nod of approval from the nurse, he handed over his phone so they could chat. He pretended not to notice Nathan's look of faint amusement as he sank back onto the couch, instead finishing off his juice before settling in more comfortably for a little sleep.  
  
  
===

  
  
As soon as they opened their eyes in the library, Kotetsu and Pao-lin hit the top of the book cases and were off and running towards the center domes. Their hunch that the layout of the library was trying to prevent them from getting there quickly proved correct, as the shelves began shifting to throw them off course, or just throw them _off._ Kotetsu grabbed Pao-lin's hand to keep her from falling when a bookcase bucked her in his direction and they kept going, trying to outrun the cases' movements.  
  
A final leap brought them within the fence of lamp posts, and both of them had to pause for a second to catch their breath. "Hey, do you smell that?"  
  
"Smell what?" Then he caught it too: the smell of something burning. And it was coming from the stone dome. Cautiously, he edged closer and put a hand out to find the rock was warm, but not as if it were the sole source of the fire. There had to be something _inside_ it. He began feeling around for some kind of crack or catch, with Pao-lin joining in the search once she'd caught on to what he was doing.  
  
Finally, near the top, they broke through a weak point in the stone and peered through the hole.  
  
 _"Damn,"_ Pao-lin murmured, and Kotetsu couldn't find the voice to correct her for swearing when it was the exact same reaction his mind was having.  
  
Inside the rock was a massive wrought-iron cage in the same shape as the outer dome, with patterns of butterflies twisted through the metal. And inside the cage...  
  
"The night of the fire. Bunny's memory of his parents' murder was the first thing Maverick used to bind him," Kotetsu finally managed to rasp in a very quiet voice. Though the flames licked and roared, nothing seemed to change. The bodies of the Brookses still lay where they'd been shot, untouched by the fire. And Bunny was-  
  
The shadow butterfly thing that had wrapped itself around the four-year-old figment of his partner -might have even been _part_ of him, now- flared out, and more dogs leaped from its tendrils to wisp under the edge of the stone barrier.  
  
"Think we can take it?"  
  
"Not sure. As long as it's feeding off this memory, it could be a lot stronger than it looks. But we gotta _try_ , or there won't be much of Bunny left to save."  
  
"Right."  
  
Bracing themselves and hoping the fire couldn't still harm _them_ , they dropped through the hole to attack the cage. The metal shuddered, but held under the first blow, and the shadow creature 'looked' up at them and _hissed_ , curling tighter around its prey. The possessiveness only pissed him off enough to try again, harder, and on the second attempt, the cage buckled, then tore, allowing them through a gap.  
  
Pao-lin immediately went for the shadow's head with a lightning-powered kick, while Kotetsu focused on trying to rip the young Bunny from its grip. The creature snarled and reformed itself, trying to evade them and keep its captive. As they kept fighting in an attempt to wear it down, Kotetsu noticed something interesting.  
  
The shadow wouldn't get near the iron of its cage.  
  
"Pao-lin! That thing can't get out of here! Try to make it get close to the bars!"  
  
"Got it!"  
  
It took four attempts, but finally, Pao-lin succeeded, and the thing _shrieked_ as the metal seemed to actually _burn_ it enough that it reflexively let go of the child. Kotetsu dove, catching Bunny in his arms and cradling him close as he leaped back out of the way of the shadow's enraged lashing. Pao-lin didn't give it the chance to come after him, trying to force it back against the bars again with rapid-fire lightning bursts.  
  
"Kotetsu?"  
  
He looked down at the weak sound to find that Bunny's eyes were just barely open, looking glazed and haunted. "Hey," he said, holding the tiny form of his partner tighter. Another hiss and shriek and the rattling of metal made Bunny turn his head a little.  
  
"What is-"  
  
" _That's_ what Maverick left behind. It's the thing that's eating your memories and your pain and giving you nightmares," Kotetsu said, before having to shield Bunny and get away from the shadow monster again. "We're trying to fight it, but it's been here so long and gotten so entrenched that we might not have enough time."  
  
"Enough time?"  
  
"This is all in your head, Bunny. There's a NEXT helping us be here, but she's not gonna be able to keep it up much longer and it might have won by the time we're able to come back. We need you to help us win _now_."  
  
He didn't get to hear Bunny's answer before pain seared through his body as a shadow tendril lashed across his back. He tried to shift to cover the small body in his arms, but the shadow monster was relentless, bearing down on him despite Pao-lin trying again to scare it off. More tendrils wove around him, forcing their way into his arms, and Bunny screamed as he was dragged free.  
  
"No!" Kotetsu and Pao-lin both cried as the shadow monster briefly brandished its prize with a snarl of glee, then enveloped the small blond in darkness.  
  
Spurred on by desperation and protective rage, Kotetsu lunged to his feet-  
  
-and the cage seemed to freeze.  
  
The fire stopped.  
  
The shadow stopped.  
  
For a brief second, everything was uncomfortably _still_.  
  
Then the shadow _burst_ , tearing itself in all directions away from what it had just swallowed to reform with a defensive hiss several feet away. And where the small child had been now stood the Bunny they knew, in armor that resembled the black armor he'd once been given, only ornately decorated in gold and brass. In a blink, Kotetsu's vision covered by a faceplate, and when he opened it and looked down, he was wearing a similar suit lined in silver and white gold. Pao-lin made a noise of delight, and Kotetsu looked over to see she had a lighter-weight gold suit of her own with a clear visor and shoulders and translucent dragon designs etched over the body.  
  
"Bunny... is this from you?"  
  
Bunny gave him a faintly wistful, strained smile as he steadied his stance a bit. "You're right. I've been letting this eat at me for far too long. I don't want to be _his_ anymore, maybe I haven't wanted to for a very long time... but here... in this place, I still couldn't make myself believe that I deserved that. No matter what I did, it would just get wiped away, and I'd never be able to stop it. But you two went through all this... I suppose it's time I fought a little harder, too."  
  
"Does that mean you're with us?" Pao-lin asked, and Bunny nodded, smile a little stronger.  
  
"I'm tired of this. I want to wake up," he said, and a sword formed in his right hand.  
  
Kotetsu cracked his knuckles and shifted into a fighting crouch as the monster reared up, roaring defiantly in the face of their preparations. Despite its size and strength, he found himself grinning fiercely. "All right, then, let's put this thing in its place for good."  
  
The shadow surged at them with a snarl, and the three lunged to attack.

 

===

 

  
When Kotetsu opened his eyes again, there was nothing but darkness for a minute. Then a soft glow flared up to his right and, when he looked over, Bunny was standing in front of a fireplace, once again four years old. Kotetsu looked at himself, and found he was still wearing the armor Bunny's imagination had created for him, then looked around to find himself in a bedroom of sorts. The bed was far too big for the child, and a familiar cake sat ready for eating on the bedside table.  "Did we win?"  
  
"See for yourself."  
  
Bunny held out his hands, and a small shadow formed in them. Instead of taking the butterfly shape, however, it became a small plush-toy tiger with a long dragon-like tail. As Kotetsu and Pao-lin stared at it, it blinked at them mechanically and then gave a squeaky little roar.  
  
"Aww."  
  
"I can take it from here," Bunny said with a faint smile. "There's a lot I have to do before I wake up, but at least now I can get it done."  
  
Kotetsu crouched down in front of his partner, and Bunny set the toy tiger on the bed before wrapping arms around his neck.  
  
"Thank you for coming after me," Bunny said quietly. "Both of you."  
  
"Just make sure you come back to us," Kotetsu managed to say through a suddenly closed up-throat, and Pao-lin could only nod agreement, biting her lip.  
  
"I will, I promise. See you back outside."  
  
Pao-lin leaned down to put a hand on Bunny's back, and they just held on to their friend until the world went grey for the third and last time.

 

 

===

 

 

When he came around to the sight of surgical lights again, Kotetsu found himself blinking back tears. "You okay?" Antonio asked, leaning over him to block out the light. "We got a weird vitals spike from all three of you about ten minutes before the time limit was up."  
  
"Yeah... yeah, I'm fine," Kotetsu said, coughing a little to get himself under control. "We killed the source of the traps. Bunny doesn't have to worry about losing all his memories now."  
  
"Guess that means now all we can do is hope the good doctors come through."  
  
"Right. "Pao-lin had come through similarly tired, but smiling, and gave him a little wave from where Natasha and Karina were fussing over her as he got up. He returned it, then went to check on Keaka while the nurses got Bunny ready to be moved.  
  
Their medium was again sweat-soaked and wiped, and raised her head when he sat down beside her. "We good?" she asked sleepily, resting her head against him.  
  
"We're good," he said, and gently bumped the back of his knuckles against those of the hand she had lying on the arm rest.  
  
The gesture earned a weak little snort of laughter. "Remember," Keaka said before covering a yawn. "Zoo and ice cream. You still owe me that."  
  
"A deal's a deal," he agreed, and she gave a decisive little nod before dozing off while her nurse was still checking her.

  
  
===

  
  
He'd made it a habit of either going to the hospital himself or at least calling in to check up on Bunny once a day, come bad weather or emergencies. Ninety per cent of the time, there was little to no change to be reported, but it was that ten per cent that kept him coming. Just waiting for something big to-  
  
"Mr. Kaburagi."  
  
Kotetsu blinked, startled out of his thoughts when the receptionist he'd passed a hundred times before in the past few months called his name just before he got to the elevators. "Er, yes?"  
  
"You're going the wrong way. Mr. Brooks' room is Five Seventy-Two."  
  
He stared at her in confusion for a second. No, Bunny's room was-  
  
Wait. He'd been to that floor before.  
  
Five Seventy-Two was in the Neurology Ward.  
  
Not the Intensive Care Unit.  
  
Understanding finally dawned on him, and his heart leapt into his throat as he bolted for the north tower elevators. When he got to the fifth floor, he ended up almost overshooting the correct room, skidding to a halt. He peeked through the narrow window next to the door, and his breath left him in a whooshing rush of relief.  
  
Bunny was there, being checked over by two nurses. He still had the breathing mask, and there were still so many machines...  
  
But he was _awake_.  
  
Kotetsu fidgeted anxiously in the hall, toying with his hat until the nurses came out, guiding a cart of statistical equipment between them. "Um- Is it okay if- I mean-"  
  
One, who'd apparently already been warned about his frequent trips, just gave him a look of wry amusement. "Yes, he can accept visitors. Keep it brief, however."  
  
Bunny turned his head at the sound of the door, and even under the mask, Kotetsu could see him smile a little. Kotetsu gave the door just enough of a push to get it to close on its own, then crossed the room and framed the younger man's face in his hands, leaning down to kiss him on the forehead. "God, don't you ever, _ever_ scare me like that again," he murmured, fighting back tears. Bunny couldn't answer him for the tubes and mask, but a hand came up to touch his in apology.  
  
He pulled back a little, just enough to lace his fingers through Bunny's, and that was enough for the time being.

  
  
===

  
  
Summer had arrived by the time Bunny was given the all-clear to leave the hospital, and they'd already made plans. Kaede's train had pulled in from Oriental Town two days before, and they picked up Pao-lin from her apartment before piling into his car to head out of the city.  
  
The Institute looked no different when they got there, but this time, instead of being brought to one of the interview rooms, they were guided instead to a bedroom that had drawings by the occupant tacked up everywhere and books and books of nature on the shelves, courtesy of his friends and her family.  
  
Keaka looked up from her latest piece when Bunny approached her. "Hello. You look very different."  
  
"In a good way, I hope," Bunny joked gently, then crouched by her work table. "The others told me about how much you helped when I was sick. And Kotetsu told me about the deal you made with him. Would it be all right with you if I paid your way to the zoo instead of him?"  
  
She chewed on the end of her pencil for a second. "As long as he still gets the ice cream," she said.  
  
Kotetsu made an 'okay' motion when Bunny glanced in his direction, then Bunny smiled and offered a hand to the girl. "Deal. Ready to go?"  
  
"Now?"  
  
"Whenever you'd like. Mr. Jericho has cleared us to chaperone you any day this week."  
  
Keaka only hesitated for a second before getting up. "Lemme get my shoes."

  
  
===

 

  
Kotetsu leaned back on the bench, basking in the sun that spotted through the trees and fences of the aviary. They'd met with the other heroes at the zoo after calling to confirm that today was the day, but only Nathan and Keith had joined them in the bird meeting area.  
  
Speaking of which... He tilted his head to see Keith chattering away with two birds of paradise as if they understood each other perfectly. Hell, they probably _did_ , for all he knew. Nathan was watching them and doing his damnedest not to laugh, a cute little pink and purple lorikeet happily snuggled on his shoulder.  
  
But what made him smile the most was seeing Bunny and Pao-lin laughing at the birds that had perched on each other's heads. Even with all the therapy he'd had to go through to get back in working shape, Bunny seemed so much... _lighter_ now that the last living remnant of Maverick's control over him had been vanquished.  
  
It gave Kotetsu a warm sort of peaceful feeling to see his partner so happy, with nothing lurking on the horizon to take that away again.  
  
A hand lifted his hat off his head from behind. "Hey, Dad, can I get some seed for the birds?" Kaede asked, pointing at the vendor near the gate they'd come in.  
  
"Sure, here," he said, and fished a couple of bills out of his pocket. She gave him back his hat and ran off to make her purchase, before going to split the seed between herself, Keaka, Bunny, and Pao-lin.  
  
Content to let them have their fun, Kotetsu settled in and made himself more comfortable, then felt something land on his shoulder. He turned his head to find a little pink and red bird that reminded him of Bunny's hero suit peering at him curiously. "Oh, I suppose you want something?" he asked it teasingly.  
  
The bird cheeped, and he chuckled a little. "C'mon, then. Let's go see if Bunny or one of the girls will share." The bird obligingly stayed put on his shoulder, and he got up to go join his daughter and their friends.


End file.
